Take Me as I Am
by tiggerzandpoohbearz123
Summary: Harry and Ellie never thought they'd be magical or different, and suddenly, they were thrown into the wizarding world. Add a crazy headmaster, a plot, a mean Potions Master, and some interesting feelings and you've got a hot mess. Book 1.
1. The Zoo Disaster

**So, here it is! My Harry Potter fic. I hate that dumb 'wait two days' thing when you first sign up, but now I can finally post! Anyways, I decided to skip the first chapter, "The Boy Who Lived" one, because, well, I'm just too lazy to write it XD.**

**Well, I guess all I have to say is that this is going to be like the book, not the movie, although their might be some things from the movie. And there's going to be enough drama and stuff to keep you interested…I hope.**

**I also plan to do every seven of the books, so it'd be great if you guys REVIEW to give me motivation and let me know if you guys will like this. Because, I don't wanna be writing all seven books with my OC in them if you guys aren't enjoying what I'm writing, if you know what I mean. Wow, this is getting long…**

**DISCLAIMER: I wish I did…but I don't. Sad, isn't it?**

**I think that's about it…**

**See you at the bottom!**

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><p>NEARLY ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew and niece on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece had really shown how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lost of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets - But Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy and a young girl lived in the house, too.<p>

Yet Harry and Ellie Potter were still there, both asleep at the moment, but not for long. Their Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill and loud voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Harry jolted awake with a start. His sister merely rolled over, her leg and arm hanging off of the narrow twin bed, and groaned, but didn't awakened. Petunia rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it - and Ellie. Harry felt his face begin to heat up, but quickly snapped out of it. After all it was _wrong _to fancy your sister, right?

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you lot up yet?" she demanded as Ellie rolled over again, her pale face facing Harry.

"Nearly," muttered Harry.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything prefect on Duddy's birthday."

Harry groaned loudly. Ellie's eyes fluttered open, showing a pair of stormy gray eyes. Her brother gave her an apologetic look and jerked his thumb toward the cupboard door, nodding slowly. She understood; her aunt was outside the door, gibbering on at such an early morning.

"What did you say?" their aunt snapped through the door causing Ellie to wince. Aunt Petunia always had such a screechy voice like that of an owl.

"Nothing, nothing…"

Dudley's birthday - something that wasn't very popular among the two siblings. Groaning, Ellie slowly sat up and cracked her back as her brother got out of bed and started looking for socks. He found two pairs under the narrow twin bed they had to share, and after pulling spiders off of them, he wordlessly handed his sister a pair and put a pair on himself. Harry and Ellie were used to spiders, because the even narrower cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where they slept.

After giving each other privacy to dress, both of them in over-sized jeans and t-shirts, they traveled down the corridor. Once they entered the kitchen, Ellie grimaced. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to the Potter twins', as Dudley was _very _fat and _hated _exercise - unless, of course, it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry, and when Ellie had stepped in to protect her brother, they both took off into a run, for Dudley could never catch them. They didn't look it, but both siblings were very fast.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age, Ellie even tinier than him and only reaching to Harry's chin. They both looked even smaller and skinnier than they really were because all they had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than Harry, eight for Ellie. Both had thin faces, Ellie's more heart-shaped and feminine and knobbly knees. Harry's hair was pure jet-black and his eyes green; Ellie's was a light brown, but still pretty dark, which was how people thought they were siblings, but the only things odd was her gray eyes. Also, her brother wore glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. The only thing that seemed totally the same about these twins were the matching lighting bolt shaped scars on their foreheads, both usually covered by their bangs. They had had them as long as they could remember, and the first question they could ever remember asking their Aunt Petunia was how they'd gotten it.

"In the car crash, when your parents died," she had said. But neither had believed her. After all, how could two people have the same scar from the same accident? Ellie was about to open her mouth to ask another question, but Petunia silenced her with a glare. "And don't ask questions!"

_Don't ask question _- that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon; he didn't dare let his sister cook again after she'd set the eggs on fire a few weeks ago and had almost burned down the house. He could still feel his eyebrows burning. So, Ellie eagerly watched her brother from the side, not paying any attention to her uncle's appearance.

"Comb your hair!" he barked sharply at Harry, by way of a morning greeting. Ellie scowled at him; he always picked on her brother's hair and she didn't like it. It wasn't Harry's fault his hair was everywhere.

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut (Ellie always blessed herself that Vernon never thought of her). Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.

Harry was frying the eggs, Ellie still watching, by the time Dudley entered the kitchen with his thin mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig, which Ellie also agreed and that caused both to bust out into laughter.

Harry, along with Ellie's help, put the plates of eggs and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. As the siblings took their seats, wooden chairs sitting side-by-side, Dudley's face fell shortly.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."

"All right, thirty-seven, then," said Dudley, going red in the face.

After giving each other a worried glance, Ellie and Harry began wolfing their bacon down as fast as possible, seeing a tantrum coming on, and they didn't want to take their chances of having Dudley flipping the table over again.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"

Dudley thought for a moment. Poor kid, it looked like hard work. Finally, he said slowly, "So, I'll have thirty…thirty…"

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right, then."

Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair while Harry and Ellie both rolled their eyes.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry, Ellie, and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said grimly. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take _them_." She jerked her head in Harry and Ellie's direction. A small smile appeared on Ellie's face as she grabbed her brother's hand and squeezed it excitedly.

Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. And every year, Harry and Ellie was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Ellie hated it there; the whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made them look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

"Now what?" Petunia questioned, looking furiously at Harry more so than Ellie, as though he'd planned this. Ellie felt her eyes go into slits as Harry squeezed her hand to calm her; of the two, Ellie had quite the temper on her, which caused them a lot of punishments. Both twins knew they ought to feel sorry that their neighbor had broken her leg, but Ellie reminded herself it would be a whole year before they had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the children."

The Dursleys often spoke about Harry and Ellie like this, as though they weren't there - or rather, as though they were something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug. Ellie felt her anger rise; she was getting sick of being treated like this.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave us here," Harry put in hopefully, throwing a small smile to his sister. That would be fun, they would be able to watch what they wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer.

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled menacingly.

"_We won't blow up the house_," spat Ellie through gritted teeth, clutching Harry's hand so hard that it was actually hurting. They didn't listen.

"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "…and leave them in the car…"

"The car's new, they're sitting in there, I won't allow it…"

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him everything he wanted.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"I…don't…want…them…t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "They always sp-spoil everything!" He shot Harry and Ellie a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms, causing Harry to wrap his arms around his sister's waist to restrain her from jumping him.

Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" exclaimed Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat; he was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. He flashed Ellie a charming smile and ran a hand through his hair; Ellie shrank back in disgust while Harry's arms tighten dangerously around her waist as he glared (_how dare he look at my sister like that_?). Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later, Ellie and Harry couldn't believe their luck. He was sitting in the back in-between Piers and Dudley, Ellie in the front in-between their aunt and uncle. They were on the way to the zoo for the first time. Their aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with them, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had roughly taken Ellie and Harry aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to theirs; Ellie had shrunken back but stared determinedly while Harry glared, trying to keep his sister a little bit behind him. "I'm warning you now, you lot - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"We won't do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and Ellie and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, Ellie trying (in vain) to comfort him, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. Ellie and him had been given a week in the cupboard for this, even though they'd tried to explain that he didn't know how it had grown back so quickly.

Another time happened with Ellie. Uncle Vernon had said some nasty things, looking back on it, Ellie couldn't remember, but all she knew was the next minute, ever light in house had blown up and shattered, causing Aunt Petunia to screech and Uncle Vernon to backhand her. That night, Harry had carefully tended to the bruise until they'd fallen asleep, but when she woke up, it was gone. They'd been given another week in the cupboard for this.

The next incident happened with Harry just a month ago. Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) - The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

On the other hand, they'd both gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing Ellie and Harry as usual when, as much to their surprise as everyone else's, there they were sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received an angry letter from Harry and Ellie's headmistress telling them they had been climbing school buildings. But all Harry tried to do (while Ellie sat somberly on the bed; Harry was shouting at Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Ellie and Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers (and of course his sister) to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained loudly to Aunt Petunia, making Ellie's ears ring. She knew she would be deaf by the time they got back home. He lied to complain about things: people at work, Harry and Ellie, the council, Harry and Ellie, the bank, and Harry and Ellie were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.

"…roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

Without thinking, Harry proclaimed, "I had a dream about a motorcycle. It was flying and -" but he stopped. He couldn't tell them that he'd dreamed his sister was with him, nor the fact that he really didn't think of her as a sister, which was _wrong_.

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

While she heard Dudley and Piers snigger, Ellie shot her brother a sympathetic look.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

But he wished he hadn't blurted it out. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was him and Ellie's talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think they might get dangerous ideas.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Ellie and Harry what they wanted before they could hurry them away, they bought each of them cheap lemon pops.

"It's not so bad, Harry," Ellie told her brother while both watched a gorilla scratch its head dumbly. "He looks a bit like Dudley, doesn't he?"

They couldn't stop laughing until lunch.

They had the best morning they'd had in a long time. They were careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. Ellie had interlaced her brother's hand in hers and they slowly sauntered; Ellie felt so happy and light, but she knew that was wrong. He was her brother, they couldn't like each other. Right?

They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Ellie and Harry happily shared the first one.

Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment, it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was asleep. Still, Ellie shivered and held her brother's hand again for comfort.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glisting brown coils.

"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered rudely. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

"This is boring," he moaned, shuffling away.

Harry moved to the front of the tank, dragging Ellie with him and they looked intently at the snake. Ellie wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least they got to visit the rest of the house.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes, causing Ellie to shrink back. Snakes just creeped her out, period. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.

_It winked_.

Harry and Ellie stared in disbelief. Then, Harry looked around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too. The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:

"I get that all the time."

"I know," Harry murmured softly through the glass, though he wasn't sure he snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

Ellie decided to speak, hoping the snake could hear her, too. "Where do you come from, anyway?"

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Both siblings peered at it:

**Boa Constrictor,**

**Brazil**

"Was it nice there?" Harry questioned softly.

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry and Ellie read on: this specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry and Ellie made both of them jump, including the snake.

"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Then, he sneered at Ellie and elbowed her in the stomach, knocking the breath out of them as both landed on the concrete, her on top of Harry. She rolled over and clutched her stomach in pain, tears threatening to spill. Hot rage blinded Harry as he saw his sister crying and what came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.

Harry and Ellie sat up and gasped, Ellie wincing because of her injury; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People through the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

As the snake slid swiftly past them, Harry and Ellie could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come…Thanksss, amigos."

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Ellie and Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten of his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for the siblings at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry and Ellie were talking to it, weren't you, guys?"

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry and a terrified Ellie. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

Harry and Ellie lay side-by-side in the dark cupboard much later, both wishing they had a watch. They didn't know what time it was and they couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, Harry couldn't risk sneaking into the kitchen to snatch some food.

They'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as they could remember, ever since they'd been babies and they're parents had died in a car crash. They couldn't remember being in the car when their parents had died. Sometimes, when they both tried to strain their memory during long hours in the cupboard, Harry had always came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he and Ellie supposed, was the crash, though Ellie voiced that she couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. They both couldn't remember their parents at all. Their aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course they were forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

When they'd been younger, Harry and Ellie had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take them away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were their only family. Yet, sometimes they thought (or maybe hoped?) that strangers on the street seemed to know them. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia rushed them out of the store without buying anything. A wild-looking woman dressed all in green waved merrily at both of them once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken Harry's hand and kissed Ellie's and then walked away without another word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry and Ellie tried to get a closer look.

At school, both had no one but each other. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated those odd Potter siblings in their baggy clothes and his broken glasses, and no one liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

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><p><strong>Whew, I hope it wasn't boring.<strong>

**So, what did ya think?**

**Harry seems awfully protective, maybe might be a little bit too overprotective ;) everything will be explained all in good time.**

**Leave a review if you want me to continue…but be nice, this is my first fanfiction.**

**Thanks a bunch,**

**Much love,**

**Tiggerzandpoohbearz123 **


	2. Strange Letters and a Mad Uncle Vernon

**Hey, guys! New chapter, haha. Anyways, just wanna say thanks to my reviewers:**

**Naginator - Thank you for the advice and thanks for reviewing and giving me your opinion!**

**Macbethwannabe - Thank you for the compliment and I'm so HAPPY you like it :D**

**Kila9Nishika - Don't worry, here's a new chapter :D**

**Also, thanks to anyone who added in their favorite/alert thing. **

**Disclaimer: Still don't…**

**Also, thanks for being nice; I'm so nervous about writing and posting for other people, haha…so please continue to be nice :D Thanks so much!**

**Just another note, sorry, but since it's summer, I'll be able to update quicker, which is a good thing, ;)**

**Now, on with the story...**

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><p>The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry and Ellie with their longest-ever punishment. By the time they were allowed out of their cupboard again, the summer holidays had started, and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.<p>

Harry and Ellie were glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Twin Hunting. Well, it was more Harry Hunting, because Harry always hid Ellie in the cupboard until they left, much to her displeasure.

Because of this, Ellie tried to make Harry spend all their time outside as possible. They wandered around the neighborhood and thought about the holidays, where each could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came, they would be going off to secondary school, and, for the first time in their life, they wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there, too, much to Ellie's pleasure. But the twins, on the other hand, were going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.

"They stuff people's heads down the toliet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry and Ellie.

Ellie crossed her arms and felt her eyes go into slits. "No they don't, _Dudders_."

Dudley returned the glare and got up close to Harry and Ellie's faces. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"

Harry seized his sister's hand and said, "No, thank you. The poor toliet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick." Then, laughing, they sprinted off, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.

One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Ellie and Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out that she'd broken her leg tripping ober one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry and Ellie watch television programs and gave them a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.

That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was _supposed _to be good training for later life.

As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst out into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown up. Harry and Ellie didn't trust themselves to speak; they each thought two of their ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.

There was a horrible smell coming from the kitchen the next morning when Harry and Ellie went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. They went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.

"What's this?" Harry asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if they dared to ask a question.

"Your new school uniforms," she answered briskly.

Harry and Ellie peered into the bowl again.

"Oh," Ellie said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."

"Oh, don't be _stupid_," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."

They both seriously doubted this as they sat in their wooden chairs at the table. Ellie crossed her arms and rested her chin on them, frowning.

"We'll look like we're wearing old bits of elephants skin," she complained softly. "As if we needed to be teased even more."

Harry didn't know what to say, but he didn't like it whenever she was upset.

Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from their uniforms. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.

They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.

"Get the mail, Dudley," ordered Uncle Vernon from behind his morning paper.

"Make Harry get it."

"Get the mail, Harry."

"Make Dudley get it."

"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."

Harry dodged the Smelting stick and left the table to get the mail. Four things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for Harry and a letter for Ellie.

Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his or Ellie's whole life, had written to them. Who would? They had no friends, no other relatives that liked them - they didn't belong to the library, so they'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet, here they were, two letters, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:

**Mr. H. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs**

**4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

And:

**Ms. E. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs**

**4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

The envelopes were thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the addresses were written in emerald-green ink. There were no stamps. Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal on each bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.

"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke while Ellie rolled her eyes at her uncle's stupidety.

Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at the letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and postcard, then handed a very confused Ellie a letter. She shot her brother a questioning look, but he was already beginning to open his own. She followed in suit.

"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk -"

"Dad!" exclaimed Dudley suddenly. "DAD, Harry and Ellie's got something!"

Dudley snatched the letter out of Ellie's hand while Vernon took Harry's. Vernon then took Ellie's from Dudley's. Since Harry's was half-way opened (Ellie still hadn't got the wax sealing off yet), he shook it open with one hand and skimmed it quickly. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.

"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.

Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment, it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise; Ellie thought she was having a heart attack.

"Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!" And she opened Ellie's and made the same noise.

They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry, Ellie, and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.

"I want to read the letters," he said loudly.

"Want to read them," said Harry furiously, "as it's _ours_."

Ellie rested a hand on his arm and whispered very quietly, "Harry, calm down."

"Get out, all of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letters back inside its envelope.

Harry didn't move. Ellie knew what was coming -

"I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.

"HARRY!" Ellie yelled back.

"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.

"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, Ellie following them out, and slammed the door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor. Ellie sat up against the door, pressing an ear to the door and closing her eyes, concentrating.

"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the addresses - how could they possibly know where they sleep? You don't think they're watching the house?"

"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.

"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want -"

Ellie could hear someone pacing up and down; Uncle Vernon.

"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer...Yes, that's best...we won't do anything..."

"But -"

"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia, let alone two of 'em! Didn't we swear when we took them in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense.

That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry and Ellie in their cupboard.

"Where's our letters?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to us?" Ellie and Harry were sitting side-by-side, smushed so close that their hips and thighs were touching...not that they weren't thinking about that...

"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned them."

"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily. "It had our cupboard on it."

"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.

"Er - yes, Harry, Ellie - about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking...you lot are really getting a bit big for it...we think it might be nice if we moved you to Dudley's second bedroom."

"Why?" asked Ellie curiously.

"Don't ask questions!" snapped their uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."

The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all they toys and things that wouldn't fit in his first bedroom. It only took Harry and Ellie one trip each upstairs to move everything they owned from the cupboard to this room.

They sat down on a twin bed they had to share (the Dursleys were cheap) and stared around them. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next-door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books; they were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.

From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother. "I don't want them in there...I need that room...make them get out..."

Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Ellie looked questioningly at him. They were always a source of comfort for each other, especially because they lived for these people.

"Yesterday, I'd given anything to be here. Now, I wish we were back in our cupboard with our letters than here." And he grabbed her and they laid side-by-side for the rest of the night.

Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.

"I wish I would've opened the letter in the hall," whispered Harry with a huff. Ellie could only nod in agreement.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia looked at each other darkly.

When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry and Ellie, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his stick all the way down the hall. Then, he shouted, "There's other ones! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom...' and 'Ms. E. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -"

With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him; Ellie following with worried eyes. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letters from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.

"Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry and Ellie.

"Dudley - go - just go."

Harry walked round and round his new room, Ellie watching from the bed.

"Harry, it'll be all right..."

"Someone knows that we moved out of the cupboard. They want us to have those letters. I've got a plan...we will get our letter, Ells."

The repaired alarm clock rang at six o' clock the next morning. Ellie didn't wake up but merely rolled around until she was comfortable. Harry, though, turned it off quickly and got dressed, and after tucking the covers around Ellie and kissed her forehead roughly, he stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.

He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door -

Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something alive!

Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror, Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face. Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right in Uncle Vernon's lap. Six letters addressed to them in green ink.

"I want -" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed home and nailed up the mail slot.

"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them, they'll just give up."

"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."

"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Petunia had just bought him.

On Friday, no less than twenty-four letters arrived for Harry and Ellie. As they couldn't go through the mail slot, they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.

Uncle Vernon stayed home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could geo out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," as he worked, and jumped at small noises.

On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. At least fourty letters to Harry and Ellie found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room Uncle Vernon made furious  
>telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor. "Who on earth wants to talk to you lot this badly?" Dudley asked Harry and Ellie in amazement.<p>

On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.

"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today -"

Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back on the head. Next moment, sixty or seventy letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry and Ellie leapt into the air, trying to catch one.

"Out! OUT!"

Uncle Vernon seized Harry and Ellie around the waist and threw them into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out, their arms over their faces, Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floors.

"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts of mustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes, ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"

He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later, they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up door and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the backseat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.

They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then, Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. "Shake'em off...shake'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.

They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall, Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.

Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley, Harry, and Ellie shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored, Ellie slept heavily, for the first time using her brother's chest as a pillow, but Harry stayed awake, staring at the lights of passing cars and wondering...

They ate stale cornflakes and cold-tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.

"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? And is one of you ladies Ms. E. Potter? I got about a 'undred of these at the front desk."

She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:

**Mr. H. Potter**

**Room 17**

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

It said the same thing on Ellie's except the addresser was different. Harry made a grab for both letters, but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.

"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining hall.

"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a mulitilevel parking garage.

"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.

It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Ellie grabbed her brother's hand, storms always terrified her, and Dudley sniffed.

"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television.

Monday. This reminded Harry and Ellie of something. If it was Monday - and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television - then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry and Ellie's eleventh birthday. Of course, their birthdays were never exactly fun - last year, the Dursleys had given them each a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's socks. Still, you weren't eleven every day.

Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.

"Found the perfect place!" he exclaimed. "Come on! Everyone out!"

It was very cold outside the car. Ellie shivered violently as Harry's arms wrapped tightly around her small form. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.

"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"

A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them. Ellie moved closer to her brother; this man was creepy.

"I've already got rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"

It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. Ellie and Harry held onto each other for warmth. Finally, after what seemed like hours, they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.

The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.

Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.

"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.

He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliever mail. Harry and Ellie privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer them up.

As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldly blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry and Ellie were left to find the softest bit of floor they could and curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He had his arms wrapped around his sister, desperatly trying to keep both warm, while she slept on. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he and his sister would be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay, peering over Ellie's head, and watched their birthdays tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.

Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, though he and his sister might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow. Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?

One minute to go and the Potter Twins' would be eleven. Thirty seconds...twenty...ten...nine - he'd have to wake his sister up, and maybe Dudley, just to annoy him - three...two...one...

BOOM!

The whole shack shivered and Harry, waking Ellie, sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

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><p><strong>Whew! Long chapter!<strong>

**Anyways, REVIEW and tell me how I'm doing, because I think it's coming along great but I wanna know how you guys think.**

**Also, I won't always be updating everyday. I only did this cuz I was excited and I have a lot of time on my hands XD**

**Thanks!**

**Much love,**

**Tiggerzandpoohbearz123**


	3. Hagrid, the Keeper of the Keys

**Hey guys! You guys have been so great to me...I almost cried :) haha, tears of happiness, of course. So, I've decided that I'm gonna try to update every week from now one, probably Sunday, if that's alright with ya'll. **

**So, thank you to...**

**Booksandmusicandmusicandbooks - Haha, love your name. That's pretty much my life :) Thanks, and don't worry, I am writing.**

**Macbethwannabe (again) - You've been terribly kind to me. It makes me so happy :) Thank you SO much!**

**Thanks to everyone who added the story to their favorite/alert etc.**

**Well, here you go. Chapter Three!**

* * *

><p>BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly. It took everything Ellie had not to bust out laughing, but her face oddly turned bright red like a tomato.<p>

There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had bought with them.

_Isn't that supposed to be illegal?_

"Who's there?" he shouted loudly, trying to seem intimidating. "I warn you - I'm armed!"

There was a silent pause. Then -

SMASH!

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.

A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

Harry, immediatly, pulled his sister behind him, expertly shielding her while the other Dursleys were completely transfixed.

The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into the frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.

"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."

He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat, frozen with fear.

"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.

Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.

"An' here's Harry! And little Ellie, too!" exclaimed the giant happily with a large and broad smile that, too, was unseen because of his facial hair.

Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and spread his arms out a little bit. The stranger noticed this and his face seemed to stretch into an even bigger smile, if that was possible.

"Las' time I saw you, you were only babies," said the giant. "Harry yeh look a lot like your dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes. And Ellie, you look like yer mum, but yeh've got your dad's hair, and where did those pretty gray eyes come from?"

Uncle Vernon made a funny, rasping noise.

"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"

"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun from Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot easily as it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.

Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.

"Anyway - Harry, Ellie," said the giant, turning his back to the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."

From an inside pocket of his black overcoat, he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers, Ellie peering over his shoulder. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with 'Happy Birthday, Twins,' written on it in green icing.

Harry and Ellie looked back up at the giant. Harry meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?" Ellie smacked him lightly at his rudeness.

The giant chuckled.

"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm, then bent and kissed Ellie's hand; it was very scratchy and whiskery and it made her giggle. Ellie now pushed her brother aside; she didn't need protection from such a sweet person.

"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."

His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath. Ellie shivered with relief.

The giant sunk back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of his pocket: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon, the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages, Dudley fidgeted a little.

Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."

The giant chuckled darkly.

"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."

He passed the meat links to Harry and Ellie, who were so hungry that they'd never tasted anything so wonderful, but Harry still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."

The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his large hand.

"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."

"Um, not really," Ellie said timidly, speaking for the first time.

Hagrid looked shocked.

"Sorry," Harry told him quickly.

"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never though yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh ever wonder where yer parents learned it all?"

"All what?" asked Harry.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"

He had leapt to his feet. His anger seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall in fright.

"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that these children - this boy and girl! - know nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"

"This is getting a bit too far," Harry whispered silently to Ellie and she nodded. After all, they weren't stupid. They could math and stuff, granted, Harry and bit more smarter than his sister, but still.

"We know some things," Harry told him. "We can, you know, do math and stuff." But Hagrid simply waved and his hand and said, "Abou' our world, I mean. Yur world. My world. Yer parents' world."

"What world?" Ellie asked, confused. There were two worlds?

Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.

"DURSLEY!" he boomed loudly.

Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry and Ellie.

"But yeh must know about yer mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're both famous."

"What? Our mum and dad weren't famous, were they?" Harry questioned.

"Yeh don' know...yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry and Ellie with a bewildered stare.

"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.

Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.

"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the children anything!"

A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.

"You never told them? Never told them what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer 'em? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from them all these years?"

"Keep us from what?" Ellie asked eagerly, her brother and her with huge smiles gracing their lips.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.

Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of utter horror.

"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry, yer a wizard and Ellie yer a witch.

There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.

"- a what?" gasped Harry and Ellie at the same time, both with surprised expressions and disbelief written across their faces.

"A wizard an' witch, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' thumpin' good'uns, I'd say, once yeh've both been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad likes yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letters."

Both Harry and Ellie stretched out their hands at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. Harry pulled out the letter and read aloud:

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore**

_**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**_

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins September first. We await your owl by no later than July thirty-first.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall,**

**Deputy Headmistress**

Ellie's had said the same thing, but of course it had been addressed to her as Ms. Potter. Questions exploded in her head like fireworks and she could tell her brother was just as confused.

After a few minutes, Harry stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"

"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a car horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat, he pulled out an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill, and a roll of parchment.

With his tongue between his teeth, he scribbled a note that Harry and Ellie could read upside down:

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Harry and Ellie their letters.**

**Taking them to buy their things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope your well.**

**Hagrid.**

Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and thew the owl out into the storm. Then, he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.

Ellie realized Harry's mouth was hanging open, and she nudged him lovingly and closed it for him. Harry felt his cheeks spread with warmth.

"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.

"They're not going," Vernon said.

Hagrid grunted.

"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop 'em," he said.

"A _what_?" Ellie asked, interested. Harry was still quiet, blushing, as he stared (inconspicously) at his sister.

_She looks really pretty...Wait, what?_

"A Muggle," said Hagird, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."

"We swore when we took them in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it right out of them! Wizard and witch, indeed!"

"You knew?" said Harry angrily, seeming to come out of his state. "You know that I'm - We're - Wizards?"

"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But, for my mother and father, oh-no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"

She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. Ellie glared, knowing that Petunia was just jealous of her mother.

"Then she met that Potter boy at school and they left and got married and had you two, and of course I knew you'd be the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you lot!"

Harry and Ellie had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice, Harry said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"

"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry and Ellie Potter not known' their own story when every child in our world knows their names!"

"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently, taking Ellie's hand in his own. Her face was still chalky white.

The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.

"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there be might trouble gettin' a hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, Ellie, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."

He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.

"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."

He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don' know his name, everyone in our world knows -"

"Who?" Harry asked, now rubbing circles on his sister's hand while they both listened intently.

"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."

"Why not?"

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went...bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."

Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.

"Maybe you could write it down," suggested Ellie sweetly.

"Nah - can't spell it. All right - Voldemort." Hagird shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry, Ellie. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches...terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.

"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head Boy an' Girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before...probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.

"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em...maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You two were just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' -"

Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.

"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..."

"You-Know-Who killed em' -" Ellie let out a strangled gasp as tears pooled in her eyes - "An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill the two of yehs. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he jus' liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got them marks on your foreheads? Those were no ordinary cuts. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why your both famous. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you two were only babies and you lived."

Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind that made him squeeze his sister's hand. She looked at him curiously. In his head, he saw a blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.

Hagrid watched both with great sympathy.

"Took yeh from the ruined house meself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh te this lot..."

"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped and gripped the hand more tightly, this time, Ellie running circles on it; he had alost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.

"Now you listen here," he snarled. "I accept there's something strange about you two, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"

But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warnin' you, Dursley - I'm warning you - one more word..."

In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.

"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right to the floor. Ellie had to bite back a soft giggle.

Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.

"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"

"Good quesion, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you two. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see...he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?

"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.

"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry and Ellie. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."

Hagrid looked at Harry and Ellie with warmth and respect and Ellie felt herself blush lightly and return the stare. But Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard and witch? Him and Ellie? How could he possibly be? They'd both spent their lives being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if they were really magical, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him and his sister in his cupboard? If they'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick Harry around like a football?

"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I - we - can be wizards."

To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.

"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry or upset?"

It was true. It had even happened, the last time, when he'd seen Dudley hit Ellie in the gut. In white rage, he'd been the one who sent the snake of him, right?

Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that the giant was positively beaming at him and his sister.

"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry and Ellie Potter, not magical - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."

But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.

"Haven't I told you they're not going?" he hissed. "They're both going to Stonewall High and they'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and they need all sorts of rubbish - spell book and wands and -"

"If they want ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's daughter and son from goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. They're names have been down ever since they was born. They're off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and they won't know themselves. They'll be with youngsters of they're own sort, fer a change, an' they'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled -"

"I AM NOT PAYING SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!" bellowed Uncle Vernon loudly.

But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - IN - FRONT - OF ME!"

He brought the umbrella, swishing down through the air, to point at Dudley - there was a violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry and Ellie saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers. Ellie giggled loudly while Harry's face broke into a grin.

Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudly into the other room, he cast on last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.

Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.

"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn hi into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."

He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.

"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."

"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Ellie softly. She was getting sleepy.

"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."

"Why were you expelled?" Harry questioned.

"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."

He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry and Ellie.

"You can kip under that," he told them. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' doormice in one o' the pockets."

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><p><strong>Well, that's it :)<strong>

**Review please!**

**Update next Sunday, so see you then :)**

**Much Love,**

**Tiggerzandpoohbearz123**


	4. Diagon Alley, Part I

**Well, here's Chapter Four? Four or Five, can't remember...might even be three...Anyways, here you go.**

**UPDATED AT MIDNIGHT OH YEAH! Haha...**

**Now, my thanks...**

**Booksandmusicandmusicandbooks (again) - Haha, so happy you liked it :)**

**Mini Luna - Thanks for telling me. I tried to make her personality shine in this chapter. I hope it's all right...**

**Macbethwannabe (again) - Thanks :D I know, I can't wait for 'em to get to Hogwarts, haha, that's when the fun begins!**

**MartinDeShade - Thank you! I've changed the summary so I hope it's better.**

**Also, thanks to anyone who added the story to their alert, favorite, etc.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! IF YOU CAN ADD THE STORY TO YOUR FAVORITE THEN YOUR CAPABLE OF REVEWING! Sorry, rant over...**

**Also, I've did a double update, because, well...why not?**

**DISCLAIMER: No...but I wish, don't you?**

**Now, on with Diagon Alley, Part 1**

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><p>Harry woke early the next morning. Ellie was curled up into his side, her head rested comfortably on his chest, while his arms were unconsiously wrapped around her. They were both hidden underneath the large, black coat. Although Harry knew it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tightly.<p>

"It was a dream," he told himself firmly. "I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me and my sister we were going to a school for wizards and witches. When I open my eyes, I'll be at home in my cupboard."

There was suddenly a loud, tapping noise. Ellie groaned and her eyelids fluttered, but she still kept them shut.

"There's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door," Ellie muttered, just loud enough for Harry to hear. Both their hearts sank, but neither had opened their eyes. It had been a good dream.

_Tap_. _Tap_. _Tap_.

"All right," Harry mumbled. "We're getting up."

Harry sat up slowly, Ellie following in suit, Hagrid's heavy coat fell off of them. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm over, and Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa. There was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.

Harry scrambled to his feet, Ellie still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and jerked the window open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.

"Don't do that!" Ellie scolded, trying to wave the owl away, but it snapped its beak fiercely at her and continue on savaging the coat.

"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl!"

"Pay him," Hagrid grunted onto the sofa.

"What?"

"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."

Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets - bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags...Finally, Ellie pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.

"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.

"Knuts?" Ellie asked, looking at the coins in her hand.

"The little bronze ones."

Ellie counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Ellie could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then, he flew off through the open window.

Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched.

"Best be off, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."

Both Harry and Ellie were turning over the wizard coins and looking at them, looking rather stupid at the moment. But then, Harry's face fell.

"Um, Hagrid?"

"Mm?" Hagrid said, pulling on his boots.

Ellie looked at her brother questioningly.

"I haven't got any money - and you heard Uncle Vernon last night...he won't pay for us to go and learn magic."

Ellie frowned. She hadn't thought of that.

"Don' worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"

"But if their house was destroyed -" Ellie started, but Hagrid cut her off.

"They didn't keep their gold in the house. Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold - an' I wouldn' say no ter a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."

"Wizards have banks?" Ellie asked, feeling quite foolishly that she hadn't thought of that.

"Just one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."

Ellie made a face; to her, she saw them as ugly little beasts, and Harry dropped a bit of sausage he was holding.

"Goblins?" Harry asked dubiously.

"Yeah - so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anythin' you want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. For Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you, gettin' things from Gringotts - knows he can trust me, see.

"Got everythin'? C'mon, then."

Harry and Ellie followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed and sparkled in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.

"Hagrid, don't you think we should say goodbye to our aunt and uncle?" Ellie asked. She didn't think it was nice to just up and leave without anyone knowing they were gone.

"No," he said shortly. "Did they look like they wanted to say goodbye to you lot?"

"Well, not really but -"

"Hagrid, how did you get here?" Harry interrupted, changing the subject, much to Ellie's displeasure.

"Flew," he answered.

"Flew?"

"Yeah - but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."

They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid and Ellie giving him the silent treatment.

"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry and Ellie another sideways look. "If I was ter - er - speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"

"Of course not," Harry said eager to see more magic. His sister, however, mumbled, "Of course," which earned her a glare from her older brother.

Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.

"I hope no one sees," muttered Ellie, looking around for any people who might've been out.

No one heard her.

"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.

"Spells - enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guarding highsecurity vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way - Gringotts in a hundred miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage to get yer hands on summat."

Harry sat and thought while Hagrid read his newspaper, _The Daily Prophet_. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.

"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.

This caught Ellie's attention.

"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Ellie asked, before she could stop herself.

"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if there was one. So, he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."

"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?" Ellie pressed.

"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."

"But why?"

"Why? Blimey, Ellie, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."

At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.

Passerby people stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town. Ellie couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing out perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry, Ellie? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"

"Hagrid, keep your voice down," Ellie hissed silently. "People think you're mad!"

"Nonsense," and he barked out a laugh that made people jump.

"Hagrid," Harry said, panting with his sister as they ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"

"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."

"_You'd like one_?" asked Ellie in disbelief.

"Wanted one ever since I was a kid - ah, here we go."

They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.

People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.

"What are you looking at?" Ellie snapped, and the people quickly looked away, but still glanced at them from the corner of their eyes. Harry was silently laughing.

"Still got your letters?" Hagrid asked, seeming to not hear what had just happened, for he was busy counting the stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket, Ellie following in suit.

"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."

Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY**

**UNIFORM**

**First year students will require:**

**1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**

**2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**

**4. One winter coat (black, silver fastenings)**

**COURSE BOOKS**

**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**

_**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) **_**by Miranda Goshawk**

_**A History of Magic **_**by Bathilda Bagshot**

_**Magical Theory **_**by Adalbert Waffling**

_**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration **_**by Emetic Switch**

_**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi **_**by Phyllida Spore**

_**Magical Drafts and Potions **_**by Arsenius Jigger**

_**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them **_**by Newt Scamander**

_**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection **_**by Quentin Trimble**

**OTHER EQUIPMENT**

**wand**

**cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)**

**set of glass or crystal phials**

**telescope set**

**brass scales**

**Students may bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**

Ellie quickly scanned over hers and saw that it said the same thing.

"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.

"If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ellie asked, interested.

"You'll see," and Hagrid winked.

Harry and Ellie had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.

"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.

"Hagrid," Ellie hissed warningly.

Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry and Ellie had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could see you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up? If Harry and Ellie hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might not have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid told him so far was unbelieveable, both twins couldn't help trusting him.

"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."

"It doesn't look that famous," Ellie muttered, gazing at it.

It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry and Ellie wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the recond shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all.

"Hagrid, can't the Muggles see it?" Ellie questioned, gazing up at a smiling Hagrid.

"'Course not. See, only witches and wizards can. Now, c'mon, inside."

He steered them through the door.

For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man with a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"

"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle. Luckily, his sister expertly shot out and grabbed his arm and stedied him.

"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry and Ellie, "is this - can this be?"

The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely silent and still.

"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry and Ellie Potter...what an honor."

He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.

"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back..."

Then, he moved onto Ellie. He kissed her hand and she felt little dribbles of his tears spill onto the back of the hand.

"Ms. Potter...such an honor to meet such a brave girl..."

Ellie felt a warm blush rise. "Oh, it's nothing..."

They didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking - no staring - at them. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out.

Hagrid was beaming.

Then, there was a great scrap of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone while Ellie found her hand being kissed by everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."

"So proud, Ms. Potter, so proud."

"Always wanted to shake your hand - I'm all of a flutter."

"Delighted, Ms. Potter, just can't tell you. Diggle's the same, Dedalus Diggle."

"I've seen you before!" said Ellie, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You kissed my hand once in a shop."

"She remembers!" cried Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? She remembers me!" They kept getting their hands shaken and kissed again and again -

Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.

A pale, young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.

"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Ellie, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."

"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand. "M-Miss P-Potter," and he proceeded to kiss Ellie's, "c-can't tell you how p-please I am to meet you."

"Are you all right, you're shaking quite a bit," Ellie asked, concerned. It was true; his hands were trembling furiously.

"O-Oh, I-I do it a-a-all the t-t-time," and he laughed nervously.

"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor?" Harry asked.

"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh?" He laughed nervously again. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.

But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry and Ellie to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away before Ellie had finally said, "Okay! That's enough! My brother and I need to get our Hogwarts stuff!" And at last, Hagrid led them out through the bar and into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but trash cans and a few weeds.

Hagrid grinned at Harry and Ellie.

"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you both were famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' to meet yeh - but, like he said, he's usually tremblin'."

"Hagrid, is he always that nervous? I mean, he told me he trembles all the time, so why?" It was Ellie who asked this, curious.

"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience...They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject. Now, where's me umbrella?"

"I don't blame him," Ellie told the two others. "I wouldn't be the same if I ran into a hag, ugh."

Hags? Vampires? Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was couting bricks in the wall above the trash can.

"Three up...two across," he muttered. "Right, stand back, you two."

He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.

The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway into a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."

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><p><strong>Well, I'm gonna split this chapter into two parts, because, well, it's such a long chapter in the book. Haha, I had fun delving more into Ellie's character.<strong>

**She couldn't act like her witty and sarcastic self around the Dursleys, because if she did, she'd get punished. Now, though...She's a really fun person to write.**

**Hope this wasn't too boring...**

**Well, go onto the next chapter! **

**Also, I've decided to have one story for each books, because if I did all seven in one story, it'd be so long!**

**Thanks and keep up with the reviews!**

**Love ya'll,**

**Tiggerzandpoohbearz123**


	5. Diagon Alley, Part II

**Well, here's part 2. I've decided with a double update, because, well, that'd be stupid to wait until Sunday for part 2 of Diagon Alley.**

**Well, here you are.**

**DISCLAIMER: No, no, no...**

* * *

><p>He grinned at Harry and Ellie's amazment. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.<p>

The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.

"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."

Both Harry and Ellie wished they had about eight more eyes. They turned their heads in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad..."

A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against the window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Ellie heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - fastest ever -" She marveled at how pretty the broom was.

There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry and Ellie had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...

"Gringotts," said Hagrid.

They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -

"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry, a few inches for Ellie. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard, and, Ellie noticed, long fingers and feet. He bowed as they went inside.

"Not very pretty," she whispered silently to Harry. "But at least their polite."

Now, they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

**Enter, stranger, but take heed**

**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**

**For those who take, but do not earn,**

**Must pay dearly in their turn.**

**So if you seek beneath our floors,**

**A treasure that was never yours,**

**Thief, you have been warned, beware,**

**Of finding more than treasure there.**

"Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," Hagrid said grimly.

Ellie grimaced. "Yeah, no kidding."

A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind long counters, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses.

There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid, Harry, and Ellie made for the counter.

"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Harry and Ellie Potters' safe."

"You have the key, sir?"

"Got it here somewhere." He started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin, Harry, and Ellie wrinkled their noses.

"Got it," Hagrid said, finally, holding up a tiny golden key.

The goblin looked at it closely.

"This seems to be in order."

"An' I've got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest while Ellie giggled. "It's about You-Know-What in vault seven-hundred and thirteen."

The goblin read the letter carefully.

"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"

Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid, along with Ellie's help, had crammed the dog biscuits inside his pockets, he, Harry, and Ellie followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.

"What the You-Know-What in vault seven-hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked, mirroring Ellie's thoughts.

"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."

Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks toward them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty and Ellie on the edge (something Harry didn't approve of) - and were off.

At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.

Ellie was having the time of her life. With a loud "whoop!" she threw her hands in the air. Her eyes stung and the wind whipped her hair, but she felt amazing.

"Harry, lift up your hands, it's funnier if you do," she told her brother, yelling to get the message across.

"Ellie, it's not a good idea..."

"Of course it is!" She leaned over the side and saw nothing but darkness. And it soon disappeared because Harry had grabbed the back of her shirt roughly and threw her back in.

"Don't do that again, Ellie!"

She crossed her arms and sighed.

Then, they saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and both eagerly twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but it was too late - they plunged deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.

"I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"

Ellie had no idea what her brother was saying; she hadn't paid much attention in school, anyway.

"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."

He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.

Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry and Ellie gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins, columns of silver, heaps of little bronze Knuts.

"All yours," smiled Hagrid.

"All ours," breathed Ellie in amazement. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from them fast than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry and Ellie cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to them, buried deep under London.

Hagrid helped Harry and Ellie pile some of it into two bags, one bag-full for each.

"The gold ones are Galleons," Hagrid explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough -" ("Yeah, for the smart people," Ellie muttered) "- Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"

"One speed only," said Griphook.

They were going even deeper now and gathering speed; Ellie now squished in-between Hagrid and Harry after she'd leaned over the edge. Still, she had her hands up and wouldn't stop squealing with joy. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom.

"Harry," Ellie half-gasped, half-scolded as she was now the one tugging her other-half. "You scared me! Don't do that again!"

"Now you know how I feel," Harry muttered, throwing her a smile. She just shook her head and faced foward, but he saw a small smile grace her lips.

Vault seven-hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.

"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.

"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," Griphook explained and Ellie gulped.

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" she asked quietly.

"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.

Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, Ellie not far behind, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least - but at first they thought it was empty. Then, Harry noticed (and pointed out to a very confused Ellie) a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.

His sister, however, did not.

"What's that, Hagrid?" she asked before Harry could tell her not to.

"Nuffin'," he mumbled, still looking a bit green, "come on, back in this infernal cart, and don' talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut."

One wild cart ride later, they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry and Ellie didn't know where to run first now that they each had a bag full of money. They didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life - more money than even Dudley had ever had.

"Might as well get yer uniforms," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All-Occasions. "Listen, Harry, Ellie, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts cars." He did look a bit sick, so Harry and Ellie entered Madam Malkin's shop, both rather nervous.

Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.

"Hogwarts, dears?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up right now, in fact. Kettleburn, come and help me fit these youngsters!"

A older wizard came over with a small smile. He seemed rather friendly.

In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin and Kettleburn stood Harry and Ellie on stools (Harry next to the pale boy) and slipped long robes over their heads and began to pin them up.

"Hello," said the boy to both siblings, "Hogwarts, too?"

"That's right," Ellie told him.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," he said. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it somehow."

"This boy reminds me of Dudley," Harry whispered softly to Ellie and she nodded fervently.

"Have you got your own brooms?" the boy went on.

"No," said Harry.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.

"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree."

"I don't," Ellie muttered under her breath.

"Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No, of course, not. We're not even at the school yet," Ellie told him smartly.

Harry shot her a warning glance.

The boy sneered. "Well, no one really knows until they get there, don't they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"Hmm," Harry said while Ellie said, "No."

"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at three large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.

"That's Hagrid," Harry told him, sounding pleased. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's some sort of servant, isn't he?"

"No," Ellie said, "he's the gameskeeper. Important to Hogwarts."

"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."

"You don't know anything," Ellie said coldly. "I think he's brilliant."

"Do you?" said the boy, sneering again and another warning glare from Harry. She didn't pay attention. "Why, is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"They're dead," Harry said shortly.

"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean," Ellie said, trying to remain calm.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"

But before Harry or Ellie could answer, they were both done and Madam Malkin said, "That's it. Your done, dears."

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.

Harry and Ellie were quiet as they ate their ice cream Hagrid had bought them (chocolate and rasberry with chopped nuts).

"What's up?" Hagrid asked.

"Nothing," Harry lied for them, knowing Ellie was a terrible liar. They stopped to buy parchment and quills; and Harry cheered up when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. Ellie fell in love with a light purple ink, and decided that that would be her color. When they had left the shop, Harry said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"

"Blimey! I keep forgettin' how little yeh know - not knowin' about Quidditch!"

"Don't make us feel worse," Ellie muttered. Harry told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's.

"- and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."

"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles - look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"

"So, what's Quidditch?" Ellie asked, changing the subject.

"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like - like soccer in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls - sorta hard ter explain the rules."

"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?" pressed Harry.

"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"

"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff!" said Harry gloomily.

"Harry..." Ellie didn't know what to say.

"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."

"Vol-, sorry, You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"

"Years an' years ago..."

They bought Harry and Ellie's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Ellie almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (_Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying, and Much, Much more.) _by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley," Harry told Hagrid when Ellie turned him in.

"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn't work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."

Hagrid wouldn't let Harry and Ellie buy gold cauldrons ("It says petwer on yer list"), but they each got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then, they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimey stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for supplies of some basic potion ingredients for Harry and Ellie, they themselves examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).

Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked their lists again.

"Just yer wands left - an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present for each of ya."

Harry felt himself go red while Ellie looked happily surprised.

"You don't have to -"

"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animals. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at - an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yeh each an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."

Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry and Ellie now both carried a large cage that each held a beautiful snowy owl, both with their heads tucked underneath their wings; they'd been twins, much like themselves, and Harry had gotten the girl, Ellie the boy.

Ellie had happily told him "thank you," but Harry couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.

"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from the Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now - only place for wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."

A magic wand...this was what both had been really looking forward to.

The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read, _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. _A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindy chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questinons that had just occured to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry and Ellie jumped. Hagrid must have jumped too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he quickly got off the spindly chair.

"Hello," said Harry awkwardly. Ellie didn't speak.

"Ah, yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon Harry and Ellie Potter." It wasn't a question. "Harry, you've your mother's eyes, Ellie, her face. My, it seems only yesterday she herself was buying her first wand. Ten-and-a-quarter-inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charmwork."

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry and Ellie. Ellie wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.

"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose-to-nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.

"And that's where..."

Mr. Ollivander touched the lighting scar on Harry's forehead and looked at Ellie's.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly to them. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands...well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."

He shook his head, and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again...Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it."

"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid nervously.

"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" asked Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.

"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.

"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.

"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry and Ellie noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.

"Hmm," said Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Ms. Potter. Let me see." He pulled out a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "You first. Which is your wand arm?"

"I'm left-handed," she told him.

"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Ellie from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit, and round her head. "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful substance, Mr. and Ms. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Ellie suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between her nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Ms. Potter. Try this one. Cherry and dragon heartstring. Eleven inches. Rather strong. Just take it and give it a wave."

Ellie took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of her hand at once.

"Oak and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -"

Ellie tried - but she hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.

"No, no - here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

As soon as the wand touched her fingers, she felt warmth seep through her whole body and little green sparks flew from the end.

Mr. Ollivander clapped his hands. "Oh, oh! This is it!" He boxed it up, wrapped it in some brown paper, and she handed him the right amount of money before standing next to Hagrid. "All right, Harry, your turn."

The tape measurer measured him and then Ollivander returned with more boxes. "Your right-handed, yes?" Harry nodded. "Right, here we are, beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Give it a wave, now."

He hardly raised the wand when Mr. Ollivander snatched it back. "No, ash and unicorn hair. Ten inches. Quite sturdy. Try -"

But he snatched that one back, too.

Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the prefect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry took the wand. Just like Ellie, he felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, bought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework. Hagrid and Ellie whooped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh very good. Well, well, well...how curious...how very curious..."

"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"

Mr. Ollivander fixed his pale stare on Harry.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail father is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother, why, its brother gave you that scar."

"Wow," Ellie breathed.

Harry swallowed.

"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember...I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter...After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."

Harry shivered and Ellie gulped. _How come my wand isn't that cool? _Harry paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry, Ellie, and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the all, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road, Ellie on the other hand, talking excitedly to Hagrid about what had happened today; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, that is, until Ellie had snapped at them again.

Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder, pausing Ellie's talking.

"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he told them.

He bought Harry and Ellie a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around; everything seemed to look so strange, now.

"Are you all right, Harry?" Ellie asked sweetly. "You're awfully quiet."

Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life - and yet - he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.

"Everyone think I'm special - that _we're _special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander...but we don't know anything about magic at all. How could they expect great things? We're famous and we can't even remember what we're famous for. We don't know what happened the night when Vol-, sorry - I mean, the night our parents died."

Hagrid leaned across the table while Ellie paused just as she was about to take another bite. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows, he wore a very kind smile.

"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll both learn fast enough. Everyone starts out beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerselves. I nkow it's hard. Yeh both've been singled out, an' that's always hard. Bet yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts - I did - still do, 'smatter of fact."

Hagrid helped Harry and Ellie onto the train that would take them back to the Dursleys, then handed Harry an envelope.

"Yer tickets fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September - King's Cross Station - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with one of yer owls, they'll know where to find me...See yeh soon, Harry and Ellie."

The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch until Hagird was out of sight, Ellie sat on the plastic seat, dozing off as she stroked her bird. He rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid was gone.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, there you go. Part 2 of Diagon Alley. <strong>

**Hope it was okay...Longer than the last one...haha**

**I'm having a lot of fun :)**

**Next Sunday: Here it comes...HOGWARTS! Also, the Weasley clan (love them), Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, and a boy with a lost toad...**

**Keep reviewing guys!**

**Love ya'll so much,**

**Tiggerzandpoohbearz123**


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